Disclaimer: Stargate Atlantis - and all the characters and settings related to the show - do not belong to me, obviously. That credit goes to MGM, Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper. The plot of this little story, however, does.

A/N – So again, sorry for the delay in posting this chapter. Life has been busy and writer's block has been unforgiving. Anyway, before you read on, I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favourited or followed this story so far – you're making this story an absolute joy to write! Keep the support coming!

~ Alone ~

Part Seven

Against a backdrop of grey, rainy days and dark, cold nights, John and Jett slowly recovered.

Even at his most optimistic, John knew that it was going to take time – more so in Jett's case due to the severity of his injuries – but fortunately, time was the one thing they both had in abundance. It wasn't going to be easy either, but John had faith that his headaches would eventually fade away into mere background noise, and that Jett would be able to stand on his own four feet with only the slightest of limps. Life would carry on.

They would survive.

Of course, life on the planet had already become a constant battle for that survival, but then, John had always been a pretty damn good fighter. Having Jett by his side helped, even though he was more like an overgrown puppy than a full-grown dog; a puppy, for that matter, who still didn't quite know his own strength. In only a few days, John had already lost count of the amount of times Jett had knocked him down in an attempt to play with him. John had received a few more bruises to add to his already extensive collection, but at least the big dog hadn't done any permanent damage yet.

And at least he wasn't alone.

Please don't leave me…

John shook his head forcefully. Then, in a somewhat futile attempt to distract himself from his dark thoughts, he gave Jett's head a gentle rub. In response, Jett nuzzled playfully into John's body, his weight almost knocking John over again.

"Easy, pal," John murmured, giving him a gentle nudge backwards. They were sat on the edge of the jumper ramp watching the sun set in the sky, and John really didn't want to end up lying face first in the grass. "Like we talked about, okay? I'm not as strong as you, so you need to go easy on me."

Like every other time John had tried to speak to him, Jett didn't show any sign that he understood the words, but it didn't bother John. It was just nice to have someone to talk to – pathetic, obviously, but still nice.

Please don't do this…

John shook his head again, and Jett, perhaps sensing his new friend's growing melancholy, snuggled closer once more. John braced his arms against the ramp floor and managed to hold the weight this time, although he could already feel the strain in his muscles. Still, he appreciated the dog's effort. It was more than anyone else was doing right now…

John let out a loud, guttural sigh, and tried to hold back his growing bitterness. The trouble was, the longer he was stuck on this crappy planet, the more of a futile effort it was becoming. He wanted to believe that his team were coming for him, he wanted to believe that they cared, but…

It was hard. Almost impossible, really. Because he was still waiting.

And his friends, his family, still hadn't come back for him.

It was starting to bring back so many of the insecurities that he thought he'd buried years ago, so he spent most of his time trying to forget instead. Which was much easier said than done…

Jett let out a soft growl and burrowed into John's side, and John responded by rubbing the beast's side, careful to avoid the makeshift stitches running across his back. Jett was tired and John didn't blame him. They'd had a long day, full of walking and hunting and not much resting.

John had been making an effort to fill his days with anything and everything he could think of that would help him and Jett survive just that little bit longer. He'd explored, hunted, then explored some more. He'd even spent time improving their' 'living quarters' by retro fitting one of the spare emergency blankets he'd found over the entrance to the jumper in order to give them at least some semblance of protection against the almost continuous deluge of heavy rain and biting cold winds.

Now on the colder nights, when the weather outside raged against the harsh land, he and Jett would lie next to each other on the cold floor of the jumper, sharing body heat as best they could while they listened to the relentless rain battering the roof above them. Jett would invariably fall into a relatively peaceful slumber not long after – sometimes with his head on John's chest - but John found it much harder to get to sleep than his canine companion, and most nights he simply lay there wide awake, listening to Jett snore on his chest, and pretending that everything was going to be okay.

Please don't do this…

"Everything's going to be okay," he muttered quietly.

It was a lie that was becoming harder and harder to believe.

"Oh come on, you stupid piece of useless ancient crap!" Rodney growled as he slammed the malfunctioning life-signs detector down onto the workbench with a little more force than was strictly necessary. In fact he was all but ready to throw the device straight out of the window and into the sea, but of course one of Sheppard's marines had done enough damage to it already, the egotistically, immature, irresponsible -

"Rodney!" Carson exclaimed loudly as he walked into the office. Rodney bit back as sigh and finally placed the life-signs detector down on the workbench. Rodney immediately tried to school his face into nonchalance, but it clearly did little to reassure the doctor. Carson frowned.

"Rodney," the doctor began, arms folded like a school teacher reprimanding a naughty child. "What on Earth are you doing?"

"Trying to fix this," Rodney replied shortly, pointing to the broken device. It was infuriating that he couldn't fix something so simple, but the truth was he just couldn't concentrate anymore. His head was aching, his stomach growling, and he was starting to see little red dots dancing around his vision. In retrospect, the fact that he hadn't slept in over 48 hours probably wasn't helping...

"Fix it?" Carson replied. "Son, you look like you're ready to punch the bloody thing."

"Well excuse me for being a bit frustrated," Rodney retorted sarcastically, lifting up the detector and holding it out to Carson. "Here, I'm sure you could do so much better."

Carson actually did take the detector to Rodney's surprise, but instead of trying to fix it, Carson simply put it down on the workbench behind him – well out of Rodney's immediate reach - and sat down on the stool next to Rodney. Rodney sighed; he should've known…

"Don't say it, Carson," Rodney began, shaking his head. "I know what you're thinking, and –"

"Shut up, Rodney," Carson interrupted. "We've all let this go on too long already. I've had enough."

Two weeks had passed since they'd abandoned the Colonel, two long weeks since they'd betrayed their friend, and Rodney was starting to feel the strain. They'd tried everything short of declaring all-out war on PX6-662, but it had got them no closer to finding Sheppard. They hadn't stopped searching, but every time they came back from a planet without him, it felt a little bit worse, and it was getting to the point where Rodney felt as if the weight of the guilt was going to drown him.

His only consolation was that Ronon and Teyla felt exactly the same way.

"You've been working yourself into the ground," Beckett began, his voice much gentler than it normally was. "You haven't been eating, you haven't been sleeping. Rodney, you need to – "

"What I need is to find Sheppard," he interrupted, anger in his voice. "We can't just forget about him…"

"No one's asking you to, lad," Carson soothed. "But the Colonel would be the first one to call you an idiot for not taking care of yourself as well."

Guilt flashed through Rodney at the Scot's words, but he pushed it away through sheer force of will. He couldn't think about that. He couldn't...

"Yeah, well he's not here now, is he?" Rodney retorted angrily. "He can't call me an idiot because we beat him up, tied him to a tree, and left him on some god-forsaken planet to die."

He, Teyla and Ronon had spent a long time going through everything they could remember about what had happened, and between the three of them, enough of their memories had returned now for them to know exactly what they'd done to the Colonel. In fact, the only thing that they couldn't remember was Sheppard's location, which just so happened to be the one thing they cared about the most.

Rodney dropped his gaze. "It's probably already too late – "

"Rodney!" Carson exclaimed. "You can't think like that. We'll find the Colonel, but you need to calm down and think rationally."

"Tried that," Rodney muttered. "Didn't work."

Rodney ran a hand over his face. He was too tried to argue with Carson but too wired to sleep. He was starting to think that those seven cups of coffee were a mistake…

"So you decided to beat up a life-signs detector instead?"

"Not one of my finest moments, I'll admit," Rodney replied quietly. "But he's relying on me - you all are - and I can't…I just can't…"

"You're not alone in this, Rodney," Carson replied, standing up. "Come on. Woolsey has called a meeting to go over everything we know so far."

"Again?"

Carson rolled his eyes. "Yes, again. No one's giving up, so you shouldn't either. Now come on. Get moving or we'll be late."

"Fine," Rodney replied, "But if someone so much as looks at me like I should have a genius solution to this mess, I swear I'll take a leaf out of Ronan's book and shoot them."

"So, Dr McKay, have you had any further thoughts since our last meeting?" Woolsey asked. "Any luck with coming up with a way for us to locate the Colonel?"

Rodney glared at Beckett, who squirmed nervously in his chair. "Rodney…"

The Doctor's eyes were practically screaming 'Don't kill the nice man', and Rodney had the sudden, irrational urge to laugh. As wired as he was, Rodney was sure it wouldn't take much more for him to snap, but he supposed that killing the expedition leader over something so trivial would be a bit...unfortunate.

"Fine," Rodney replied. He turned to face Woolsey, who was sat at the head of the conference table. "No, I haven't. I've spent every waking moment scouring through the Ancient Database, but I haven't found anything so far to narrow down the search. Short of going to every single planet and scanning for Sheppard's sub-q transmitter, I don't know what else we can do."

"I've got a few ideas," Ronon added threateningly.

"I fear that no matter what we do, the people of PX6-662 will not disclose the Colonel's location," Teyla added, shooting him a warning luck. Ronon didn't even have the sense to seem contrite.

"Doesn't mean we shouldn't try," Ronon muttered.

"And we will," Woolsey said, shooting his a look. "Though perhaps not quite in the way I believe you are suggesting, Mr Dex."

"That will take too long," argued Rodney. "Sheppard will probably be old and grey by the time we actually find him. That's if he isn't already…"

"Rodney," warned Beckett.

"Sorry," he muttered in reply. Rodney couldn't help but think the worst though. He'd never been an optimistic person; that was Sheppard's department…

"We will find him again, of that I have no doubt," Teyla said quietly, her tone sure. Rodney wished he shared her confidence. "We must simply think of a better way than relying on the Priest to disclose his location."

"I did have one idea," Jennifer began quietly. She glanced over to Rodney with a look that immediately sent his nerves jangling. Oh, he wasn't going to like this…

"Go on," Woolsey gestured.

"It's a bit…out there," she began. She turned to Rodney, apologetic. "I don't think you'll like it…"

"It can't be worse than anything we've come up with," Rodney replied, irritated at himself for his own failure. "Come on. What's the big idea?"

"It's just...well..."

Rodney rolled is eyes. "Jennifer..."

"Hypnotism," she said, her gaze dropping.

There was silence for a few moments, and then Rodney couldn't help it.

He laughed. Loudly.

"Rodney…" Carson warned.

Rodney turned to Jennifer. "You mean you're not joking?"

"No," she huffed. "It's a perfectly valid, medically-recognised form of – "

"It's the most voodoo of all the voodoo sciences," Rodney interrupted. "We may as well hold a séance and see if my dead great-great grandma Ida knows where Sheppard is."

"I will do it," Teyla said firmly.

"What?" Rodney began, completely taken aback. "Hold a séance?"

"No," Teyla replied patiently. "This…hypnotism. I am not sure what it is, but if it will help us find John, I am willing to try it."

"That's great, Teyla," Jennifer smiled.

"Seriously?" scoffed Rodney. "You don't even kn-"

"I'll do it too," interrupted Ronon.

"Oh, come on!" Rodney moaned.

Ronon glared at him. "Sheppard's been missing for two weeks and we still have no idea where he is. This is worth a try."

Rodney looked around the table in incredulity, but found no sympathy on any of his friend's faces. They were serious about this.

Rodney sighed. "Fine, if you want to waste your time, it's no skin off my nose. But if you think anyone's poking around in my brain, you can think again. You two might be stupid enough to volunteer, but I actually know what hypnotism is, and there's no way in hell I'm going to do it." He shook his head for emphasis. "No way. No way at all…"

A/N – So, how was it? I realise that this was a relatively short chapter, but I thought it ended in a good place, and the story has at least moved along a bit. I'm trying not to rush the plot, but I also don't want to drag it out either. Hopefully the balance is okay at the moment, but let me know if you think I can improve things! For now though, keep your reviews coming (I love them all) and thanks for reading!